The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., which runs Apple's iOS operating system. The first iPad was released on April 3,2010; while the most recent iPad models, the fourth-generation and the iPad mini, were released November 2,2012.
The iPad serves more purpose than just gaming, taking photos, and playing music, the iPad is changing the classroom.
An iPad can shoot video, take photos, play music, and perform Internet functions such as web-browsing and emailing. Other functions such as gaming, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, and even buying and writing books by downloading and installing apps. The Apple App Store has more than 800K apps available to users.
Focusing on the growing use of the iPad in the classroom, it inspires creativity and hands-on learning with features you will not find in any other educational tool. Powerful Apps from the App Store such as iTunes U and iBooks Author let students engage with content in interactive ways, find information in an instant, and access an entire library wherever they go.
iBooks Author is everything you need to create a book right on a handheld tablet. iBooks Author is available for free on the App Store and it is an amazing app that allows users to generate multi-touch textbooks. The features in the app makes it easy to add text, graphics, movies, etc. iBook Author allows you to create books that even people with disabilities can read and experience. Now with iBooks Author, educators can create context that is specific to their classroom needs.
Textbooks are old school. The iPad is the New Age. During the late 90's and early 2000's some teachers used webquest as a tool to teach a topic to their students by having students research online resources that have been provided to them from their teacher. The webquests usually ends in the students creating a report, video, or presentation. Now with iBooks Author students can take their video, report, and presentation and create a beautifully crafted lesson on any topic while honing their digital content creation skills. iBooks Author's easy to use templates allow students to focus more on the content they are learning and creating and less on learning a program to create content that has a steep learning curve.
Teachers can create and iBook of the course materials that can easily be updated and distributed to students. While this can be done a myriad of ways, lets say you are a teacher of a face-to-face classroom of students on have to regularly miss class (i.e., student athletes), you could place much of the class material in an iBook that is uploaded to your iTunes U collection. Students would need internet connection for one moment while downloading the book or chapter, but they have constant access without internet connection after it has been downloaded. In this instance, the student does not have to miss so much work. The iBook is so much more than just a PDF file that a student could download. It is better than having students downloading multiple documents and having to remember which to read. The iBook could also suffice for a guide on course material throughout the week(s). iBooks Author is very similar to a textbook, but it is so much more tech-savvy and advanced. A table of contents can be created showing everything in order for students to review. iBooks even provides a self-check section to help students realize what information is seeking in and what information still needs to be reviewed.
As for a course like ours, JOUR150, since we are required to put together a final portfolio, iBooks Author provides an easy packaging system where students can quickly drag and drop their projects from the semester in a neat, clean and fun iBook that can easily be presented on the iPad. So, if our final project was slightly different, and we composed more than one blog post, we could incorporate them all into an iBook for a full presentation instead of presenting only one final post on blogger.
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